Agenda and draft minutes

These were agreed as a correct record.

Please introduce yourself and outline your role and responsibilities.

I am the Chairman of the County Council’s Corporate Parenting Panel (CPP), and of the Children’s Social Care and Health Cabinet Committee.  I am also a Deputy Cabinet Member. I am responsible for seeing that the agendas of these two committees cover the issues that Members most need to look at – adoption, fostering, Virtual School Kent (VSK), CAMHS etc - anything which impacts upon the lives of children in the care of the County Council.

You have a much bigger role that that, with your fostering and adoption background.

I used to be a foster carer, so I have a personal knowledge and experience of the subject. Over the years I cared for 20 – 30 children and have foster granddaughters of 25 and 9. 

What are your corporate parenting duties?

As I have said above.  But every Member has corporate parenting duties and responsibilities. I have been on the County Council for a very long time, and I know that people form into silos in some areas.  The majority of Members know they have a corporate parenting role, but not all are involved as much as they could be.  The Corporate Parenting Panel (previously the Children’s Champions Board (CCB)) raised the profile of the corporate parenting role but it is very difficult to undertake this role. I see corporate parents as being a bridge between the County Council and children and young people in care.  I have ensured that young people serve on the Panel, and I see them and their involvement as an asset as they tell it like it is. Also, the foster carers on the Panel are a very valuable resource as they bring their insight and we see their view of the bureaucracy that sometimes comes into our processes.  They are advocates for young people.  I have also served on fostering panels and adoption panels.

How should elected Members fulfil their corporate parenting role? What should they be doing?

They do the best they can with their ability and with their awareness, but they could do more.  The question is how can they do that?  They need to keep engaging with young people, they all signed the County Council’s Pledge to its children in care, they saw the excellent presentation at full Council that young people did recently, to give Members an insight into the issues of being children in care, but the corporate parenting role is a hard one to identify. We need to ask ourselves ‘what is a good parent?’ and do the same as corporate parents as we would for our own children. Young people are in care because of what has been done to them, not because of anything they have done.

I agree that many Members are not fulfilling this role, but what should they do?  How should they care for children in care?

Obviously there is a line that they can’t cross; Members can’t go round to a child’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Please introduce yourself and describe the roles and responsibilities that your post involves.

I am the Headteacher of the Virtual School Kent (VSK).  VSK has multi-agency responsibilities, not just to do with educational attainment. They include undertaking health assessments and dental checks when a child or young person enters care.  We also collect data on attendance and exclusions and pass it to the specialist children’s services Management Information Unit.  My primary duty is to ensure that young people in an education setting get the support they need and to drive for the best possible outcomes that we can achieve for them. VSK works with schools to put in help and support over and above what a child would receive in a normal school. We train teachers and support staff to identify and manage the issues that children in care face.  Pupil Premium Plus (PPP) is paid by the Government and is for children in care only.  It was previously paid to schools but it is now given to VSK, so we have control over how it is spent in schools. In April 2012, VSK took over responsibility for the Children In Care Council (which in Kent is called Our Children and Young People’s Council (OCYPC)) from the Young Lives Foundation and we developed the websites for the OCYPC and Kent Cares Town.  We organised focus groups which evolved into the participation days for children in care that we currently hold across the county in the school holidays. These have been a great success, with 300-400 children and young people taking part each year.

What are the key issues for children in care in education - achievement, attendance?

Children in care are the poorest performing young people in terms of school attainment, not just in Kent but nationally.  However, we have seen a very positive improvement. Kent is unique in the UK due to the number of children in care it has, which includes an extremely high number from other local authorities and unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC), and the pressures that this places upon its schools. For example, every secondary school in Thanet has 30 – 40 children in care.  In year 11, most other local authorities have 20 children in care in each of their schools, but Kent has 150, and this volume brings a challenge.

Summary of KS2 attainment stats over last 4 years

5 Yr KS2 Trend Breakdown

Results across all three indicators had increased across the board.

It is difficult to compare KS4 data like-with-like with previous years as the Government changed the method of measuring and weighting in 2014, shifting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Chairman welcomed Sinead and Sarah to the meeting and invited to introduce themselves before answering questions from Members.

Sinead stated that she had been a senior practitioner in the children in care team at the Poltons Family Centre in Dover.  One of her key roles was to place children with Foster Carers in order to support them once an order was in place.   She still had a full social worker case load and also carried out other managerial tasks.

Sarah explained that she was a team manager and managed a team of 6 social workers and 1 social work assistant, her role was to straddle the two functions of the supervision of social workers and a managerial function for her team for example drawing up the duty rota and providing training and development for social workers.

Q – There can be some confusion around the use of the term “supervision” which has a specific meaning in the context of social work. Can you explain this please?

Sinead explained that in this context supervision was carried out 3 or 4 weekly or more frequently if something happen in relation to a case.  In the regularly 3 or 4 weekly supervision there was an opportunity to for the social worker to discuss cases with the manager and to speak about the social workers role and training. It was a reflective discussion. It gave the manager oversight and the opportunity to discuss ideas on specific cases.

Sarah stated that supervision meetings provided an opportunity to explore the dynamics of cases in a reflective way in order to enable a picture to be gained of the case.  Social workers instincts were important in relation to cases. 

Sinead stated that supervision was crucial for Kent in relation to Ofsted inspections, Ellen Monroe (?) had made a recommendation regarding reflective supervision and the importance of social workers being able to discuss their feelings about a case with their managers.

Sarah confirmed that supervision provided a formal record of discussions enabling Ofsted to look at the how and the why of a case.  It made it possible to provide a clear record of why a decision was made.  Looked after Children had a right to look at the decision made about them which is why it was particularly important to make sure that key decision about the child are recorded.

Sinead referred to the new records system that had been introduced and encouraged reflective supervision on a rolling basis. 

Q - Sinead you are based in the Poulton Family Centre in Dover?

Sinead explained that the Poutlon Family Centre was a general family centre which housed the family support team and the children in care team and managers.  It was a drop in centre. 

Q – Members have a corporate parenting responsibility, how far would you like Members to support and help you?

Sinead referred to visits made by Elected Members to local offices and where appropriate to sit in on a review.     She stated that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

One of the key issues identified by Members from today’s evidence gathering sessions was that of accommodation for children in care including accommodation for young people leaving care.  It was agreed to further consideration would be given to the key issues at the meeting of the Select Committee on 27 February 2015.